Executed in 1936, this still life by Mercedes Matter was most likely drawn during the summer she spent in close association with Arshile Gorky, a particularly important moment in the development of her early work. The drawing’s compressed space, shifting perspectives, and interlocking arrangement of objects suggest Matter’s growing engagement with the structural language of European modernism that also preoccupied Gorky during these years. Rather than describing each object independently, Matter constructs the still life through overlapping contours, repeated lines, and sharply angled forms, allowing the tabletop and its objects to merge into a single pictorial structure. The instability of the perspective is especially significant: forms appear to be seen from several positions at once, transforming an observed arrangement into an investigation of space and composition. Seen in the context of Matter’s relationship with Gorky in the summer of 1936, the drawing offers an unusually intimate glimpse into a formative period when her observational practice was becoming increasingly abstract and structurally ambitious, anticipating concerns that would remain central to her painting and teaching for the rest of her career.